Google to put complete Dead Sea scrolls online

Google, in collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority, will be digitizing and uploading the 2000 year old Dead Sea scrolls; a collection of manuscripts that are thought to be some of the oldest religious texts in existence.

The collection of 972 documents is among the greatest archaeological finds of the modern era, and hold massive historical and religious significance. They contain the oldest-known surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible, extra-biblical passages that weren’t officially canonised into the book and some very early Jewish rules.

The first fragments were discovered south of Jerusalem in 1946 by Bedouin shepherds, hidden deep within a cave on the shore of the Dead Sea. Once collected and archived, the collection comprised over 30,000 fragments, making up 900 different manuscripts.

They’re kept in a climate-controlled exhibition centre called the Shrine of the Book, at the Israel Museum, but you’ll soon be able to read the documents, in their entirety, on the internet.

Parts of the text have been crudely catalogued before, using traditional photography, but this digital recreation will use multi-spectral image technology, developed by NASA, for high-resolution shots. The photographs may be so detailed that previously faded words can be seen and read, casting new light on the manuscripts.

Then, Google will step in and put the pictures online. The texts, written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, will be translated into English and written out in text so the data can be searched by scholars.

The project, which will cost around $3.5 million (£2.2 million), has already begun and the first pages will appear online in early 2011. The complete scan and translation will take approximately five years to finish.